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The seeds for McGill University were planted in
1801 with the founding of The Royal Institution for the Advancement of
Learning. Following the bequest of wealthy Montrealer, James McGill, the
Institution was renamed McGill College and was granted a royal charter in
1821. The University began its academic life in 1829 with a Faculty of
Medicine comprised of four doctors from the Montreal General Hospital who
gave lectures at Number 20 St. James Street in Old Montreal. James McGill's
dream to establish a world-class centre of higher education has certainly
come to fruition for, today; the University has grown to include a multitude
of disciplines and is attended by more than 30,000 registered students from
more than 120 countries around the world.
In 1843, the Medical Faculty persuaded a group
of women to open the University Lying-In Hospital. This facility became the
Montreal Maternity Hospital and eventually merged with the Royal Victoria
Hospital to become the Women's Pavilion in 1926. The Royal Victoria Hospital
went on to open one of the first infertility centres in the world as part of
its Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. The Fertility
Clinic later evolved into the world-renowned McGill Reproductive Centre
which opened its doors in 1996.
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